Library Home>All Subjects>M Subjects>Money-Changers

Money-Changers

Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:

Those who made a business of supplying the annual half-shekel offering at a premium

(Ex. 30:13-15¹³This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty gerahs:) an half shekel shall be the offering of the Lord. ¹⁴Every one that passeth among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto the Lord. ¹⁵The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls. (Exodus 30:13‑15); Matt. 21:12¹²And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, (Matthew 21:12); Mark 11:15¹⁵And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; (Mark 11:15)).

Concise Bible Dictionary:

These were persons who supplied those who came from a distance to Jerusalem, to pay the regular tax to the temple, with a half-shekel, in exchange for any money they might possess. The Lord’s language to such, when He drove them out of the temple, seems to imply that they took unfair advantage in the exchanges (Matt. 21:12¹²And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, (Matthew 21:12); Mark 11:15¹⁵And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; (Mark 11:15)).